General Disappointment

It was a story told to me more than once and which I believed for years. That is until I started digging around for some history on the person I consider to be one of the most important person with my last name.

Dad claimed William Orlando Darby was a second cousin or something along those lines. I believed it was true because the future brigadier General was raised in Fort Smith, Arkansas which is jus’ “down the road a piece” from Muskogee, Oklahoma.

Darby was a U.S. Army officer during World War II. He led the famous Darby’s Rangers which evolved into the U.S. Army’s Rangers. His father, Percy Darby, owned a print shop, and his mother, Nell, was a homemaker and he had a younger sister named Doris.

Bill Darby was born February 8, 1911 and graduated from West Point June 13, 1933, a second lieutenant. On April 30, 1945, a German shell exploded near Colonel Darby’s location and a piece shrapnel tore a dime-sized hole in his heart and he was dead within minutes.

Darby received many awards, including two Distinguished Service Crosses, a Silver Star for “Gallantry in Action,” a Purple Heart, and a Combat Infantry Badge, as well as the British Distinguished Service Order. A week later, President Truman promoted Darby to Brigadier General.

Named for him are the USNS General William O. Darby, a U.S. Army troop ship, which is now retired. Cisterna, Italy, has a Darby School, and Fort Smith, the sister city to Cisterna, the senior high school he attended is now called the William O. Darby Junior High.

Darby was originally buried in a military cemetery outside of Cisterna, Italy, but on March, 11, 1949, his body was returned to Arkansas and reinterred at the Fort Smith National Cemetery which is jus’ a few blocks from his boyhood home. I visited that boyhood home, at 311 General Darby Street (formerly East 8th Street.)

Unfortunately, the home, now a museum, was closed that day. Needless to say I was a bit disappointed in myself that I hadn’t taken better care to find out the site’s hours.

And to this day I have in my book collection, “We Led the Ways: Darby’s Rangers,” written by Darby and William Baumer and “The Spearheaders,” authored by James Altieri, a member of Darby’s original Rangers.

Unfortunately for me, Brigadier General William O. Darby is not related to my family.